If you have an Apple product, chances are you’ve heard of their (relatively-new) iCloud service. iCloud lets you store your content in “cyber space” (Apple’s servers) as a backup. It also makes it so your content is “pushed” to all of your devices the moment you change it on one. For example, take a picture on your iPhone and it’ll automatically appear on your Mac and iPad.
Apple also recently released the capability to sync wirelessly with iTunes. However, it’s not as picture perfect as it seems. As usual, the technological innovations we salivate over have limitations. Regardless of where you get service – from wireless Internet providers Encino to wireless Internet providers Cumming – you’re sure to experience some frustration with these wireless Apple features.
Limitations of the iCloud service
First of all, you don’t get that much space for free. You have to purchase extra space if you have more content to backup than 5GB. Most of our hard drives these days are in the 500GB range, and most phones these days are around in the 20Gb range. So only 5GB? Granted the upgrades in storage capacity aren’t that expensive ($20/year for an extra 5GB), but still.
Don’t get us wrong. iCloud is a pretty sweet idea. But it has one more caveat. You don’t stream from iCloud; you download from iCloud. If you were dreaming of a world where you didn’t have to store any songs, pictures, music, books or videos on your devices and you could just stream them from the cloud – you were in fact dreaming.
Therefore, you’re kind of forced to ask yourself a lot of questions. What songs should I put in the cloud? Do I only want to play this song once? If so, then is it worth downloading? Wouldn’t it be faster and more sensible to just sync like I normally do in iTunes than to download songs from iCloud?
Limitations of wireless syncing
So let’s say you do choose to sync with iTunes instead of download from iCloud. You can try Apple’s new wireless sync method. But wait – a few things to remember first:
- You have to plug your phone into a wall outlet in order to wirelessly sync. This is definitely not the definition of wireless.
- You have to go into your settings and turn on wi-fi. So, not only do you have to be connected to wi-fi, but you have to actually go into your phone and turn it on. Maybe one of these days Apple will make a wi-fi quick switch.
- Your laptop or computer needs to be awake. If it’s sleeping, you have to wake it up.
Yeah, these steps aren’t exactly like climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, but wireless syncing definitely isn’t as great as it seems. Neither is iCloud.
